Opposable Thumbs —

Sony scales back PlayStation 3 launch plans

Sony has delayed the launch of the PlayStation 3 in Europe, Russia, Australia …

The simultaneous worldwide launch of the PlayStation 3 has been scrapped. Sony has announced that Europe, Russia, and the rest of the PAL territories have been eliminated from the November launch plans, leaving only Japan and North America to launch on schedule. The Japanese launch is scheduled for November 11, with the North American launch coming a week later on November 17. The delay pushes the European/PAL territory launch back to March 2007.

According to a statement, "The revision of the launch date in the SCEE territories is caused by the delay in the mass production schedule of the blue laser diode within the Sony Group, thus affecting the timely procurement of key components to be utilised in PLAYSTATION 3." This jibes with earlier reports that Sony was indeed experiencing blue laser shortages. It remains speculative whether or not Cell yields are also lower than the company had hoped for. In a press conference, Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi said that the blue laser diode shortage has put them behind "by around one month."

A tight launch

Kutaragi also said that the company would need to revise its shipping estimates for the calendar year, lowering them from 4 million units to 2 million units. However, Kutaragi said that this was only a temporary delay, saying that the company was still committed to shipping 6 million consoles by the end of March.

Nevertheless, the US launch will feature only 400,000 machines, while the Japanese launch will have only 100,000, according to an AP Report. If indeed Sony is to ship 2 million units by the end of the calendar year, this suggests that the supply line will only be warming up at launch time.

Ken Fisher
Ken is the founder & Editor-in-Chief of Ars Technica. A veteran of the IT industry and a scholar of antiquity, Ken studies the emergence of intellectual property regimes and their effects on culture and innovation. Emailken@arstechnica.com//Twitter@kenfisher